scholarly journals Fram Strait and Greenland Sea transports, water masses, and water mass transformations 1999–2010 (and beyond)

2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 2314-2346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marika Marnela ◽  
Bert Rudels ◽  
Ilona Goszczko ◽  
Agnieszka Beszczynska‐Möller ◽  
Ursula Schauer
Keyword(s):  
Water Mass ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Greenland Sea ◽  
Water Mass Transformations

scholarly journals Water mass evolution of the Greenland Sea since late glacial times

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Telesiński ◽  
R. F. Spielhagen ◽  
H. A. Bauch
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
Greenland Sea ◽  
The Holocene

Abstract. Four sediment cores from the central and northern Greenland Sea basin, a crucial area for the renewal of North Atlantic deep water, were analyzed for planktic foraminiferal fauna, planktic and benthic stable oxygen and carbon isotopes as well as ice-rafted debris to reconstruct the environmental variability in the last 23 kyr. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the Greenland Sea was dominated by cold and sea-ice bearing surface water masses. Meltwater discharges from the surrounding ice sheets affected the area during the deglaciation, influencing the water mass circulation. During the Younger Dryas interval the last major freshwater event occurred in the region. The onset of the Holocene interglacial was marked by an increase in the advection of Atlantic Water and a rise in sea surface temperatures (SST). Although the thermal maximum was not reached simultaneously across the basin, benthic isotope data indicate that the rate of overturning circulation reached a maximum in the central Greenland Sea around 7 ka. After 6–5 ka a SST cooling and increasing sea-ice cover is noted. Conditions during this so-called "Neoglacial" cooling, however, changed after 3 ka, probably due to enhanced sea-ice expansion, which limited the deep convection. As a result, a well stratified upper water column amplified the warming of the subsurface waters in the central Greenland Sea, which were fed by increased inflow of Atlantic Water from the eastern Nordic Seas. Our data reveal that the Holocene oceanographic conditions in the Greenland Sea did not develop uniformly. These variations were a response to a complex interplay between the Atlantic and Polar water masses, the rate of sea-ice formation and melting and its effect on vertical convection intensity during times of Northern Hemisphere insolation changes.

Water Mass Transformations in the Southern Ocean Diagnosed from Observations: Contrasting Effects of Air–Sea Fluxes and Diapycnal Mixing

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 1472-1484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gualtiero Badin ◽  
Richard G. Williams ◽  
Zhao Jing ◽  
Lixin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
Diapycnal Mixing ◽  
Argo Data ◽  
Reanalysis Dataset ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Circumpolar Current ◽  
Water Mass Transformations

Abstract Transformation and formation rates of water masses in the Southern Ocean are estimated in a neutral-surface framework using air–sea fluxes of heat and freshwater together with in situ estimates of diapycnal mixing. The air–sea fluxes are taken from two different climatologies and a reanalysis dataset, while the diapycnal mixing is estimated from a mixing parameterization applied to five years of Argo float data. Air–sea fluxes lead to a large transformation directed toward lighter waters, typically from −45 to −63 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) centered at γ = 27.2, while interior diapycnal mixing leads to two weaker peaks in transformation, directed toward denser waters, 8 Sv centered at γ = 27.8, and directed toward lighter waters, −16 Sv centered at γ = 28.3. Hence, air–sea fluxes and interior diapycnal mixing are important in transforming different water masses within the Southern Ocean. The transformation of dense to lighter waters by diapycnal mixing within the Southern Ocean is slightly larger, though comparable in magnitude, to the transformation of lighter to dense waters by air–sea fluxes in the North Atlantic. However, there are significant uncertainties in the authors' estimates with errors of at least ±5 W m−2 in air–sea fluxes, a factor 4 uncertainty in diapycnal mixing and limited coverage of air–sea fluxes in the high latitudes and Argo data in the Pacific. These water mass transformations partly relate to the circulation in density space: air–sea fluxes provide a general lightening along the core of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and diapycnal diffusivity is enhanced at middepths along the current.

Late Quaternary palaeo-oceanography of the Denmark Strait overflow pathway, South-East Greenland margin

1998 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 163-167
Author(s):  
Antoon Kuijpers ◽  
Jørn Bo Jensen ◽  
Simon R . Troelstra ◽  
And shipboard scientific party of RV Professor Logachev and RV Dana
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
Labrador Sea ◽  
Greenland Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Denmark Strait ◽  
The North Atlantic

Direct interaction between the atmosphere and the deep ocean basins takes place today only in the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic continent and in the northern extremity of the North Atlantic Ocean, notably in the Norwegian–Greenland Sea and Labrador Sea. Cooling and evaporation cause surface waters in the latter region to become dense and sink. At depth, further mixing occurs with Arctic water masses from adjacent polar shelves. Export of these water masses from the Norwegian–Greenland Sea (Norwegian Sea Overflow Water) to the North Atlantic basin occurs via two major gateways, the Denmark Strait system and the Faeroe– Shetland Channel and Faeroe Bank Channel system (e.g. Dickson et al. 1990; Fig.1). Deep convection in the Labrador Sea produces intermediate waters (Labrador Sea Water), which spreads across the North Atlantic. Deep waters thus formed in the North Atlantic (North Atlantic Deep Water) constitute an essential component of a global ‘conveyor’ belt extending from the North Atlantic via the Southern and Indian Oceans to the Pacific. Water masses return as a (warm) surface water flow. In the North Atlantic this is the Gulf Stream and the relatively warm and saline North Atlantic Current. Numerous palaeo-oceanographic studies have indicated that climatic changes in the North Atlantic region are closely related to changes in surface circulation and in the production of North Atlantic Deep Water. Abrupt shut-down of the ocean-overturning and subsequently of the conveyor belt is believed to represent a potential explanation for rapid climate deterioration at high latitudes, such as those that caused the Quaternary ice ages. Here it should be noted, that significant changes in deep convection in Greenland waters have also recently occurred. While in the Greenland Sea deep water formation over the last decade has drastically decreased, a strong increase of deep convection has simultaneously been observed in the Labrador Sea (Sy et al. 1997).

scholarly journals Abyssal Circulation Driven by Near-Boundary Mixing: Water Mass Transformations and Interior Stratification

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 2203-2226
Author(s):  
Henri F. Drake ◽  
Raffaele Ferrari ◽  
Jörn Callies
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Boundary Mixing ◽  
Downslope Flows ◽  
Abyssal Circulation ◽  
Midocean Ridge ◽  
Water Mass Transformations

AbstractThe emerging view of the abyssal circulation is that it is associated with bottom-enhanced mixing, which results in downwelling in the stratified ocean interior and upwelling in a bottom boundary layer along the insulating and sloping seafloor. In the limit of slowly varying vertical stratification and topography, however, boundary layer theory predicts that these upslope and downslope flows largely compensate, such that net water mass transformations along the slope are vanishingly small. Using a planetary geostrophic circulation model that resolves both the boundary layer dynamics and the large-scale overturning in an idealized basin with bottom-enhanced mixing along a midocean ridge, we show that vertical variations in stratification become sufficiently large at equilibrium to reduce the degree of compensation along the midocean ridge flanks. The resulting large net transformations are similar to estimates for the abyssal ocean and span the vertical extent of the ridge. These results suggest that boundary flows generated by mixing play a crucial role in setting the global ocean stratification and overturning circulation, requiring a revision of abyssal ocean theories.

scholarly journals WATER MASSES CHARACTERISTICS AT THE SANGHIE TALAUD ENTRY PASSAGE OF INDONESIAN THROUGHFLOW USING INDEX SATAL DATA 2010

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivonne M Radjawane ◽  
Paundra P Hadipoetranto
Keyword(s):  
North Pacific ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Core Layer ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
Coastal Current ◽  
Indonesian Throughflow ◽  
Pacific Water

<p><strong><em>ABSTRACT</em></strong></p> <p><em>Measurement of ocean physical param</em><em>eter</em><em>s using the CTD was conducted by </em><em>deep water expedition </em><em>INDEX-SATAL 2010 (Indonesian Expedition Sangihe-Talaud) in July-August 2010. Th</em><em>e</em><em> </em><em>aim of this </em><em>study wa</em><em>s to</em><em> determine the characteristics of water masses around the Sangihe Talaud Water where the</em><em>re </em><em>wa</em><em>s an entry passage of </em><em> Indonesian throughflow (ITF) </em><em>at</em><em> </em><em>the </em><em>west </em><em>path</em><em>way that passed through the </em><em>primary</em><em> pathway i.e., </em><em>the Sulawesi</em><em> Sea and Makassar Strait and the secondary pathway (east pathway) that passed through the Halmahera Sea. The analyses were performed by the method of the core layer and was  processed with software Ocean Data View (ODV). The results showed that in the Sangihe Talaud waters there was a meeting water masses from the North Pacific and the South Pacific. The water mass characteristics in main pathway through the Sulawesi Sea was dominated by surface and intermediate North Pacific water masses and carried by the Mindanao Currents. While the Halmahera Sea water mass was dominated by surface and intermediate South Pacific water masses carried by the New Guinea Coastal Current that moved along the Papua New Guinea and Papua coast enters to the Halmahera Sea. </em></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>: Index-Satal 2010, Northern Pacific Water Mass</em><em>es</em><em>, Southern Pacific Water </em></p> <em> Masses, Sangihe Talaud</em>

scholarly journals Sea ice volume variability and water temperature in the Greenland Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 477-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Selyuzhenok ◽  
Igor Bashmachnikov ◽  
Robert Ricker ◽  
Anna Vesman ◽  
Leonid Bobylev
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Greenland Sea ◽  
Nordic Seas ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Long Term Variations

Abstract. This study explores a link between the long-term variations in the integral sea ice volume (SIV) in the Greenland Sea and oceanic processes. Using the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS, 1979–2016), we show that the increasing sea ice volume flux through Fram Strait goes in parallel with a decrease in SIV in the Greenland Sea. The overall SIV loss in the Greenland Sea is 113 km3 per decade, while the total SIV import through Fram Strait increases by 115 km3 per decade. An analysis of the ocean temperature and the mixed-layer depth (MLD) over the climatic mean area of the winter marginal sea ice zone (MIZ) revealed a doubling of the amount of the upper-ocean heat content available for the sea ice melt from 1993 to 2016. This increase alone can explain the SIV loss in the Greenland Sea over the 24-year study period, even when accounting for the increasing SIV flux from the Arctic. The increase in the oceanic heat content is found to be linked to an increase in temperature of the Atlantic Water along the main currents of the Nordic Seas, following an increase in the oceanic heat flux from the subtropical North Atlantic. We argue that the predominantly positive winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index during the 4 most recent decades, together with an intensification of the deep convection in the Greenland Sea, is responsible for the intensification of the cyclonic circulation pattern in the Nordic Seas, which results in the observed long-term variations in the SIV.

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